surfer girl goes global

This past weekend Candice left the cold south to come up to the somewhat warmer Sunshine Coast, which really hasn’t been that sunny lately. Unfortunately I decided to go out to 240s the night before she came so I was pretty tired but the night at 240s was quite good after which we walked through McDonalds drive through and ordered meals so we could get a $1 board game. It was Trivial Pursuit and when Candice and I played it we discovered that it was probably the lamest game ever made. An example question: Is apple, banana, or pear the name of a big computer company? Seriously? And I was worried it would be hard.

So anyway had to work Friday morning which kinda sucked because Candice flew in at 8:15am and I’d had the previous 3 days off so it would have been nice if it had been Wednesday, Thursday, Friday we didn’t work so I could have actually been there to pick her up on time but as it was I didn’t get off work till 10 and didn’t get to the airport to pick her up until about 11:30 but it was ok. She napped and read and said she didn’t mind waiting so I didn’t feel so bad. My car had been acting kinda funny when it hit 100km/hr so we drove most of the way at 120km because that’s when it started driving fine again and so we got home in no time! Candice decided to take me out for lunch so we went to Sizzler!! Which is apparantly one of Eden’s favourite places to go so we took a photo and sent it to him to make him jealous. Sizzler was soo good. Except that in the future I need to remember not to go to Sizzler unless all I want to do for the rest of the day is absolutely nothing because I always eat so much that I can only just lie around on the couch for the rest of the day. And friday was no exception I felt so ridiculously full I couldn’t do anything add that I had only had about 3 hours sleep and I was probably not the best company that night but it was ok, I think Candice was tired too so we went to bed early so we’d be rested for Saturday night!

Saturday I had to work in the morning too but we were done by 8:30 so I had plenty of time to show Candice some of the sights. We went to the Sunshine Castle in BliBli and then to my favourite place – the Big Pineapple!!! Where Candice Inna and I shared a Big Yum Ice Cream! It is massive and so good! We took photos with the Pineapple and I wrote my name it on it. The Castle was pretty cool too, we got to wear Viking Hats and take cool pictures, it was a little weird though because they had a whole bunch of dolls on display that were a little bit creepy, all in all it was good to go there and check it out but I doubt I would be back.

That night we made Tacos for dinner they were so good and then it was time for goon!! And Cider for Candice. And drinking games. We introduced Candice to Fuck the dealer, the pyramid game, red or black…  I don’t remember if there were more but everyone got pretty wasted. Especially Ken who apparently had to get shown to his room after falling asleep on the picnic table. Candice and I went out to Fridays that night, with Bart and this Taiwanese girl who ended up leaving her ID and home and so had to go home early while the rest of us danced the night away. Candice thinks Bart likes me, I also think he probably does, unfortunately I don’t like Bart, and it’s awesome that Candice got to meet him because I try to explain about him but you just don’t get it until you meet him and then you see what I mean.

Sunday morning Candice and I wandered down the beach to Cotton Tree where we had a coffee at my old favourite coffee and muffin joint – Sisters. While we were sitting there waiting for our coffees who walked by but Luke. Awkward. Then after ordering his lunch he came and sat with us for a while and chatted. So Candice also got to meet Luke. After that we went to the Bellingham Maze, well actually after that Peter took a look at my car to see what the problem was and discovered an issue that needed attending too. So Denise was nice enough to drive us to the Bellingham Maze, which turned out to be a lot more fun than I was expecting it to be. The best part was this rope maze before the actual maze and everybody hooks themselves onto a coloured rope and then you have to follow your rope around and back to your starting point. It was so fun.

That night Candice cooked me the most amazing dinner I have had in a long, long time. Steak with mushrooms, potatoes and broccoli and spinach. I think everybody was jealous. It was so good. So so good. I’m drooling just thinking about it now. That night was also a girls birthday so there was banana cake! Then Candice and I watched The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2 and went to bed early as I had to work the next day.

Monday morning I worked till 11 which was fine cuz Candice slept till 11. Then we went out for Thai food for lunch then hung around watching TV for a while before she had to go to the airport, on the shuttle bus because we had taken The Haybird in to get fixed. It was awesome having her around for a while, she was talking about trying to get Eden to come up with her next time and then they could go to the Australia Zoo. So maybe I’ll get to see her again!

Still in Maroochy, still picking passionfruit, still got nothing going on. We had 3 birthdays last week which meant 3 nights of birthday cake which was super awesome, first passionfruit, then banana with chocolate icing and yesterday was chocolate! It was amazing!

There’s new Norwegien girls at the hostel, hung out with them last night, playing asshole, drinking goon. One day I was watching TV and it got so cold in there I decided to put socks on with my sandals to help keep my feet warm. Jearn thought it was really funny and started calling me Bart, then when Bart finally got home he wasn’t wearing socks with his sandals!! WTF?? Disappointing Bart. I told him he was dead to me. He said I thought I was already dead to you. You are Bart. You are. Then he said you love me really and I said I do Bart let’s get married at the Big Pineapple. He didn’t disagree. We’re getting married. I’m so excited! Ha! Not.

Then on Friday it was Micha and Ivy’s last day at the hostel so I brought out the goon and they brought out the cards and we played drinking games and I got pretty loaded before I had to clean the kitchen at 8:30. So the first day of Carrie and I cleaning the kitchen didn’t go so great. But I think we’ve gotten the hang of it and even though it’s kind of a drag to go clean every day it’s good because it gives me cheap rent and it’s never so bad once you actually get in there. Just don’t drink too much before it’s time.

Then on Saturday Tina and I went to the Gympie Show!! Wayne at work invited Eda to go with them and hearing him talk about it it sounded like it might be fun, better than sitting around the hostel anyways so after work we headed down to Gympie. We got there and payed $20 to get in (which I’m not completely sure it was worth) and the first thing we saw was this poodle that was shaved really cool like you see in movies and we were pretty excited and took photos. Then there was this chicken & pigeon place with a whole bunch of birds in cages and I went in and started taking photos and I was loving it! I don’t know why. But it was so fun. Then there were a bunch of rides (Tina and I went on the scary ‘Halloween’ one, a mini rodeo and lots of food and showbags. Which I was going to buy one but ended up not, it’s what you do at shows here – they always talk about showbags and everybody has them but we’re broke backpackers. We decided not to.

Sunday I watched TV all day and my car didn’t start in the morning, I was convinced that I was going to have to scrap it. Luckily it worked later that day but now I always have to let it warm up before I can drive it. And it doesn’t drive as smoothly as it did. I’m worried that it’s on it’s last legs and that our time together is almost over. Please Haybird. Don’t die. Peter said he’d look at her for me. Hopefully she’ll be ok. I really couldn’t image travelling around Australia without a car. What would I do with all my stuff??

This week turns out to be really shitty and rainy, rainy yesterday, rainy today (got the day off work hooray! Spent the morning drinking coffee and watching Ellen just like the olden days) rainy tomorrow, hopefully it’s better before Candice comes on friday.

Lately I have been missing Canada a lot. I don’t know if it’s because I’m just so over being here (in Maroochydore) or that I’m tired of being poor and having nothing to do and no money to do it, or that I’m just completely miserable because of all of the above and Simon being gone but I really really miss Canada.

I miss Tim Hortons brekkie sandwiches, 24 hour shopping, Canadian fashion, my music, my computer, snow, Canadian beer, Canadian stores, you know just the general awesomeness of Canada. Big chain hotels and restaurants and insulation, Shoppers…  everything. Toaster waffles, real bacon, toques, being able to buy a lot of stuff over the counter without having to talk to the pharmacist, free healthcare, Cityline, my coffee maker with a timer so I can wake up to Folgers in my cup, snowboarding, having a selection of clothes to wear other than the 5 outfits I’ve been wearing for the past 10 months, A&W, being able to properly groom myself, having friends who aren’t only your friends until they move on to the next city, having a disposable income.

I think it’s probably just one of those semi annual mini crises I tend to have now and again but it just sucks. Cuz I’m here in Australia ‘livin the dream’ except that it sucks and I’m bored most of the time and I’m broke and picking passionfruit which along with giving you very few hours of work, not enough money, and a lot of extra time to do nothing, also gives you a lot of time to think and I tend to think about stupid things that don’t help.

I suppose it’s a good time for it though, while I’m stuck doing time here on the farm because at least I’m working and getting my VISA days in while I debate whether or not I should go home at the end of the year. I miss you Canada. You’ll always be home for me.

Goon is a backpackers best friend it’s cheap, gets you pissed and there’s lots of it and if you need to pass out before you get to your bed you can use it as a pillow. Alternatively when you empty it you can blow it up and draw a pig on it and I think you can play some kind of game.. oh wait I think it was a really dirty game. Or you can use the blown up goon bags as a sort of pillow for a pillow fight. Some people like to slap the goon while other just like jiggling it when it’s lying on the table. Also it contains vitamins and is filtered through fish and eggs and other things so you can get that protein that you might otherwise lack in your diet if you’re cheap like me and don’t buy meat except for cans of tuna when they are on for 4 for $5.

One bad thing about goon is that it gives me heartburn, also I’m told that once you have a very bad night with goon you can never go back to it. Thankfully I have never personally experienced the very bad night but others have told me once it happens you’re done, one unfortunately German backpacker currently at our hostel went to a goon party the night before he left Melbourne and woke up the next day on a bus to Adelaide he doesn’t remember packing his bag, checking out, getting on the bus or anything…  it could’ve ended up badly but fortunately he made it to his destination. Just watch how much you drink, although I suppose it is easy to get carried away. Drinking out of a bag you can’t always tell how much you’ve had until it’s too late.

As I said to the BWS employee when I came to the counter with my 2 for $16 boxes of goon “I love my goon.” At least you’ll have somewhere to lay your head he replied.

Yesterday at work I planned my dream wedding at the Big Pineapple. When Simon and I went there a few weeks back we were suprised to see that they did weddings and immediately thought it would be an awesome idea, we often joked about it but it wasn’t until yesterday picking passion fruit that I actually took the time to consider a wedding at the Big Pineapple. I’ve always wanted to get married in Vegas I don’t know why but I think it would be fun but now I think the Big Pineapple takes number one spot, it’s just so. .. big and awesome there. And I think that a pineapple, coconut and macademia cake would be tops, and think of the ice cream you could serve. How wonderful it would be to walk out of the Big Pineapple in a wedding dress down the isle to my future groom, heavenly. Driving away in the Macademia Nut Car. It killed a few hours anyway.

ps. the other night after we got Bart drinking all those Jager shots he totally vomitted and was missing pieces of his memories – he he almost makes up for the fact that he completley pussied out on the goon and the shots that he was supposed to do tonight.

Speaking of pussy, today we had to explain the word to Ivy this really sweet Taiwanese girl who’s staying at the hostel, Tina, Ivy and I had gone to the Plaza for a nice day of Peddleboating down the river, ice cream, and grocery sh0pping at Coles (which is one of the favourite pasttimes of everybody at the hostel – so what are you doing today? I don’t know Coles, library… ) and on the way back said something about someone being a pussy. So she asks what’s pussy? We tried to explain about being a wimp but she didn’t really get it so she looked it up in her translator and she looks shocked ‘it’s says..  ‘ and points down there. It does but it also means being a weakling etc. we explained. Then we had to give some examples of how to use it, and I told her to tell Bart to stop being such a pussy. She thought it was funny. We then told her she could also say ‘I want to eat your pussy’ which is completely inappropriate but still – funny.  Just one of those funny conversations that you have as a backpacker.

Tomorrow after work we are going on a roadtrip to Brisbane! To go to the Casino and shopping and just to get away from the hostel for a while because seriously I’m going crazy.

Saturday is free bread day at the hostel, at 5pm the owners come round with leftover baked goods from some bakery in the area and it’s a frenzied rush to get the good bread and baked goods. So I better get going as it’s almost time to go wait for bread.

Until next time…

Well I got happy again after a fun night of getting Bart drunk so I thought I’d take this time to tell you about Bart who is probably the most unlikely backpacker you will ever meet. Or not meet because obviously you are not here. You know those guys that live in their parents basement and know Klingon and play Dungeons and Dragons and collect action figures and shit, well that’s Bart. When you first meet him you wonder what planet did this guy come from? But after a while nothing he says or does or pulls out of his backpack really suprises you.

I’ll just go get my camera and he comes back with one of those massive professional looking Nikons with the huge lens and way more features than I’ve ever seen, whoa! But of course Bart would have a camera like that, why not? Then there was the day he was telling us about wanting to go to some Embassy in Brisbane so he could get some kind of medal and you trade them with the one from your country or whatever and he goes upstairs and pulls this bag of medals out of his backpack and comes to show us what he’s talking about. Or the day we got home to find him sitting there with a box of little Warhammer figurines which he proceeded to glue together over the next week or two and there was the one particularly exciting Sunday morning where we all pretty much sat there and watched him do it for an hour.

Yesterday after whining about how much my life sucks and sitting around looking at old photos forever I ran into Tina at the library and walked home together and decided to hang out at the picnic table together instead of hiding in the TV room. Bart had gotten a bottle of Jagermeister and was offering people to do shots with him so after a while we just started getting him to do shots with everybody at the table, oh Bart you haven’t done a shot with Julia yet, I think she really wants to.  Lee! Bart wants to do a shot with you. Bart always talks about how much he can drink and how fast he can drink and hold his alcohol but he never gets drunk. He said he had another bottle of Jager so he said he would do ten shots on Saturday or something so I made pinkie swear that he would do at least ten shots and then he decided if he had to do ten shots I’d have to do ten shots and then somehow he decided it would be a Canada vs. Belgium drinking competition to see who could drink the most. So I’m gonna drink Bart under the table..  or vomit but either way Bart is getting drunk. I think everyone is looking forward to that.

Also he decided for some reason that on Friday he would drink a box of goon in 5 hours, starting at 5:30pm I don’t remember why but I think one time he said he could do it in that time so now he’s gonna prove it. He says we don’t want to see him drunk but I think we all are very curious. Jearn said he’d be dancing naked on the table and Bart’s like no it would take more than a box of goon to do that to me.

This guy never shuts up either he always has something to say and it’s always about himself and most of the time it’s the most boring thing in the world as he admitted himself, yeah I’m full of unintersting information as he takes a breather from boring Jearn with whatever unintersting facts he was sharing with him. It’s really funny to encourage some of his bullshit about him being Beer King or almost Beer King and dating the Beer Queen or his cat fetish or the way he wears socks always even with thongs (which I enjoy mimicking) especially now that it’s cold. He was talking about our drinking competition on Saturday and said something about a Bookie and I played stupid and went Bookie? What’s that? and went on to tell me all about bookies and betting and odds.

And how he does calculations for EVERYTHING. He was explaining to us about how he would decide what time to wake up tomorrow at, so 10 minutes for eating, 3 to brush my teeth, getting dressed, being early to get a good seat in the van….   So Bart what time is it? Well according to wind speed and the angle of the sun and one hour for daylight savings and minus the fact that I have the watch five minutes fast so I’m never late…. 

He brags about his stamp collection and how people from back home are always texting him saying they miss him and to come home and the girls..  so funny. We love taking the piss.

And I learned how to say hoodie in German yesterday!

Today was a completely miserable day picking passionfruit. I woke up in the night to hear the rain coming down and as I sat at the picnic table drinking my coffee waiting to leave I was hoping Peter would come round and tell us we wouldn’t be working. It wasn’t really raining just then but it was cold and wet and you just knew that it would be a crappy day. Peter came round and I got all excited but then he just said morning and went on his way. Crap.

So we all piled in the car and took off. The drive to work is always fine, I got the music on and my coffee but before you know it we are there and have to get out of the warm car and walk around barefoot in the cold grass. I brought my bin liner ‘raincoat’ with me that we got from Twist and was wearing that with a jumper at first but then got hot so took the jumper off. Then it started raining, hard and the farmer gave us rain jackets but I was already wet and the jacket was irritating my arms and then it just kept raining and kept raining and I was cold and couldn’t find my jumper and it seemed to be taking forever and I was just ready to start crying I was so miserable. Then I remembered a little song Carlie sometimes sang while working on the farm from hell "always look on the bright side of life… " then I started actually singing to distract myself from my misery and it worked – mostly. But it still sucked.

It probably didn’t help that I was already pretty miserable because my best friends at the hostel all left. Now it’s all asians who don’t speak much english, me and a few other people who are ok but not super awesome, well Tina’s pretty cool. It’s pretty sad. I’m supposed to be living the dream but I feel like I’ve hit the wall. Even surfing which is what I came out here to do has no appeal to me anymore. I’ve got the ocean, a board, a lot of freakin time to kill but instead of going surfing I sit around in the tv room stuffing my face and sleeping. What a great life. Not.

I think I’m just tired of it, Maroochydore, picking fruit, being broke, being stuck here, tired of everyone being your new best friend and then leaving when they start to actually become a good friend. Especially when it’s a boy who you actually kinda fancy and who it turns out fancies you too but neither of you ever did anything about it until the day before he leaves - and you probably will never see them again. But want to.

It’s these things that make me thing that I should go home at the end of the year and maybe come back later. Or maybe just stay. Or not come back. Maybe the white concrete walls and cold weather is just making me crazy.

The past couple of days have been pretty crazy Simon left the hostel on Sunday and had Friday off so of course we had to celebrate, well I don’t actually know about celebrate because I miss him and wish he was still here but we had to send him off in style. So Friday after I got back from work we went out mini golfing at the Adventure centre or something that we’d seen driving back from Noosa one day. It was a pretty lame golf course but we had fun and he won despite my early lead, and we both got ‘hole in one’ certificates which I hung on my wall. 

After golfing we went to the Ettamogah Pub which is pretty much a big tourist trap pub near Aussie World for a beer and it was pretty cool. Then went home and made Nachos and started on the goon. Later that night we went out for Thai food with Micha and Ivy and Heidi we weren’t really hungry after the  nachos but decided we’d share and went anyway. It was freezing cold on the way over and we huddled together for warmth.

When we got to the restaurant it was pretty much empty which we thought was kinda funny since Micha insisted that we make reservations. It was ok though because we got to sit at the round table. Simon and I were a bit gooned up by this point and were goofing off a bit, the food was amazing though and well worth the walk through the freezing cold and rain. After dinner Simon and I had a chop stick fight and then he had me hold one so he could Karate Chop it. Yeah it was pretty awesome. We’re so mature.

On the way home the others had to stop for more alcohol so stood outside the Bottle-o hugging, for warmth, it was really nice. Then they wanted to stop at the food store but we decided to just keep on going home because it was so cold out. We spent the rest of the night sitting around playing drinking games, got Simon smashed. He spent the end of the night lying on the cement under the table and then ended up spending the night in Julia’s bed.

It’s funny because she’s this 60 year old woman and she always wanted the door open during the night because it gets really stuffy except that it’s soo cold at night and there was this big drama one morning where she opened the door and then it was closed and then opened and closed and opened and eventually resulted in her sleeping in the TV room ever since. So Simon often joked about going and spooning with her in the TV room or waiting for her in her bed one night. Well I guess he thought it would be a good idea so went and slept in there.

She was pretty surprised when she came in in the morning and later said ‘I came in and there was this big thing in my bed and then I realized it was you!’ Luckily she thought it was funny and didn’t get pissed. Later Simon told his mom what he had done and she apparantly told him to ‘please stop drinking.’ We all thought it was pretty funny.

Saturday night we ended up playing cards and then it turned into this crazy drinking game and I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to Simon so we just ended up staying awake till about 4 in the morning and have a lot of fun and getting into a bit of mischief to say the least.

It was hard getting up for work in the morning but it had to be done and by the time I got back he had left for the airport and Darwin I spent the day sleeping and night sleeping. And I’ve been kind of bummed ever since, he was really fun and awesome and I hope I see him again.

Today was Yui’s birthday and so we had a big BBQ in the park and I ate way too much but it was still fun with lots of photos to be had. Now Carlie leaves tomorrow, her boyfriend is coming back and there are no more rooms at Suncoast so they are going to the YHA which is a ways away and then they are going travelling for a couple weeks but she’s planning on coming back.

Anyway 61 days left for my work VISA I’m counting down.